Last edited 28 Dec 2022

How can enterprises protect their data in cloud environments?

1 Introduction
2 Understanding cloud data protection
3 Challenges of data protection in cloud environments
4 Best practice
5 Related articles on Designing Buildings

[edit] Introduction

Data is an invaluable asset for both enterprises and their clients. Easily accessible and properly secured data combined with insightful analytics promotes corporate innovation, boosts customer satisfaction and loyalty, and most importantly, gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Businesses may replace outdated, on-premises file storage systems with more recent, cloud-based alternatives. The introduction of the cloud has sped up IT modernisation because of:

Easier scalability
Lower expenses
The capacity to modify IT architectures in response to changing business needs

But the news isn’t all good. Traditional security mechanisms, which were created to protect data and programs running on on-premises systems, have been undermined by the adoption of the cloud. Now, protecting your cloud-based data is a very different matter.

The majority of cloud service providers follow the “shared responsibility” principle, which states that security is the responsibility of both the vendor and the client. While the cloud platform will guarantee the security of the cloud infrastructure, the enterprise is responsible for ensuring security on its end by safeguarding its data and login credentials against security threats and limiting access to that data.

[edit] Understanding cloud data protection

A specific model of data security known as “cloud data protection” is used in order to safeguard data stored in a cloud environment, irrespective of whether the data is at rest or in motion. With enterprise cloud data protection, data is secured and protected on the cloud against loss, theft, or abuse due to unauthorised access, breaches, and infiltration.

To provide the highest level of security, a cloud data privacy and protection plan must be developed to guard all types of data, including:

Data in Use: This is crucial information that is being used by a programme or application currently via user authentication and access control.
Data in Transit: This is private data travelling over a network through encryption or other protection controls.
Data at Rest: This refers to the information that is presently being kept on-site or in the cloud.

In general, enterprise cloud data protection and privacy will secure your data by defending consumer and company information from both external and internal attacks, as well as protecting data by backing up and restoring processes and systems. Additionally, it entails preserving data privacy by creating control access for specific segments, which guarantees that only a few authorised people have access to important and sensitive data.

[edit] Challenges of data protection in cloud environments

Numerous security challenges are brought on by the complexity of cloud architectures, along with the increasingly strict data protection and privacy laws and vendor shared responsibility models. Enterprises may face the following major difficulties or challenges:

[edit] Visibility of data

Keeping an accurate inventory of all applications and data, which is very important for data protection, can be challenging for enterprises.

[edit] Accessibility

Compared to on-premises infrastructure, there is less control over data and applications hosted on third-party infrastructure. It is not always feasible to see what other users are doing and discover how devices or data are being used.

[edit] Controls

Cloud vendors provide a well-known “shared responsibility model”. This indicates that while cloud users have more control over some security features, others are still under the vendor’s control, and users cannot guarantee security.

[edit] Inconsistencies

Since different cloud providers offer a range of capabilities, cloud data privacy and protection may vary.

Threat actors may take advantage of these issues to cause security lapses, the loss or theft of trade secrets and private or financial information, malware infections, or ransomware infections.

[edit] Compliance

Enterprises are expected to abide by data protection and privacy rules and regulations, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), 1996, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union. Setting uniform security standards across cloud environments and demonstrating auditor compliance may be quite challenging for businesses. This could be the reason the market for data protection is anticipated to reach $158 billion before 2024.

Cloud computing has undoubtedly given enterprises access to storage and processing capacity in a flexible and scalable fashion, but as we mentioned earlier, security is still a major concern.

According to Gartner, in 2020, preserved personal data represented the main area of privacy and security risk for 70% of enterprises. Organisations that were found to be weak in privacy protection by 2021 incurred heavy compliance expenses that were more than twice as high as those of their prepared competitors.

So it’s crucial to set security best practices that work for your company because cloud providers might not be as accountable for the security of your data as you might believe.

[edit] Best practice

[edit] Analyse built-in security

Any cloud security services provider you select should be well-equipped with reliable tools to protect enterprise cloud data security and strong internal controls. In order to ensure that systems are properly safeguarded, look for providers who offer service-level agreements. Additionally, they ought to be open and honest with their clients about their compliance standards. Verify the policies that vendors have, to ensure compliance with regulations as well. These vendors should also be certified to meet compliance requirements and offer your organisation transparent services.

[edit] Keep an inventory of your data

It is far more challenging to accurately evaluate any potential hazards without a complete list of your assets. The identification of the appropriate controls required to safeguard sensitive data may become even more challenging as a result.

Therefore, you should first determine the kind of sensitive data you have to secure and protect in order to create the optimal cloud data security and protection strategy. Consequently, you must determine the kind of data that requires protection and its location.

You can create a strong programme for cloud data security and protection as well as strengthen accountability for all employees inside the company and boost productivity. It can further enhance the procedures for reporting, making decisions, and performance optimisation.

[edit] Pair authentication with encryption

The protection of data and other cloud assets can be improved significantly through authentication. However, there will always be a chance that hackers will pretend to be authorised users to access private information. Therefore, encryption is crucial as well.

Encryption scrambles the data using encryption keys (randomly created passwords) as an additional degree of security. You should also think about file-level encryption. Adding another layer of security to data before transferring it to the cloud can act as the basis for your cloud security and protection.

Additionally, data can be divided into small pieces or shards such that each piece is saved separately. This reduces the risk of a complete file being easily compiled if someone breaches the system.

[edit] Set up a strong credentials policy

Ensuring that there are both rigorous access rights and strong credential policies is another way to improve cloud data breach protection. Data breaches and assaults can be avoided by using strong credentials. Access control is one of the best types of cloud data protection. And thanks to strict permissions, only the data that individuals and programs need can be accessed by them.

Robust credential policies should be implemented in order to stop attackers from exploiting the permissions granted to these users and programs. You should routinely examine your passwords and permissions. Check to see if each credential in the system is truly being used. You should also check whether people are using the same passwords frequently and if passwords are difficult enough to guess.

[edit] Use security-enhancing tools

You can use a few third-party apps or tools to further safeguard your data:

Cloud storage entry points: The entry points enable the transfer of data between local hot storage and cloud cold storage. A good entry point can lessen bandwidth issues, security hazards, and latency. It will ensure that edge-generated data is retained, access is permitted across data tiers, and security is upheld.

CSPM: A group of security technologies known as Cloud Security Posture Management helps find and fix potential security problems, thus decreasing attack opportunities. The procedures are automated and continuously scan cloud systems for vulnerabilities. If anything is found, they will notify the customer.

SIEM: The Security Incident Event Management tool uses analytics and artificial intelligence to identify internal and external actions that could lead to threats. SIEM continuously updates its threat awareness and can effectively respond to security events as they occur.

[edit] Identify security gaps in systems

Usually, cloud environments are interconnected with other services and systems, some of which are internal and others external. Gaps increase when you add more vendors and systems to the stack. The security of the information and resources shared and used by these systems must be ensured by organizations by identifying each security gap and taking the necessary precautions.

Organizations are supposed to set up their own procedures in order to maintain compliance and security, even while some are implemented by outside vendors. Specific security procedures must be followed by every sector of business, as third-party vendors do not always offer the same level of compliance.

[edit] Establish a zero-trust framework

Enterprises should search for solutions that aid in the establishment of a zero-trust framework in order to develop complete, all-encompassing enterprise cloud data protection and privacy solutions. Zero trust uses context—including device, user, content, and application—to build trust before a link is formed, which helps an enterprise handle the specific cloud security concerns your organization is facing.

Zero trust enables you to proactively defend access to your assets, giving you the edge over data-hungry cyber threats as your business uses cloud services to boost flexibility.

[edit] Consistently back up your data

Replicas of data must be made and kept apart from the main repository at regular intervals. Regular backups aid in defending the enterprise from important data losses brought on by a lockdown or data wipeout. Data replicas also allow for ongoing offline work whenever cloud resources are unavailable.